All Clear!

So Hannah's check up went very well. She still has a little fluid behind her ear, but no more infection. (If this happens again, we are going straight to Augmenten)
But she is cutting 4 teeth! So as you can imagine, she is still pretty miserable. At least I know it is not an ear problem, so I don't feel as bad.

And here are the photos of my princess pictures all hung up in our lime green playroom! (Ok this room was supposed to be "fresh pear" but after it was painted it ended up lime green. Its cute for a playroom but a lot greener than planned! :)

the dental update ...etc

just a quick note (from the iPhone)

Little Leah finally cut her first tooth last week! Bottom front ( I have no clue all the names of teeth; incisers and bicuspids ... No idea). So bottom front is the technical term. The one beside it should be peeking through any day!

Hannah now has five. It seems to all be coming at once! They are definitely giving her a hard time. So she now has 3 up top and 2 on bottom.

We go back to the doctor tomorrow to check her ear. After 10 days of augmenten she is still messing with it. But she has been sleeping better- off and on.

I have a very busy week ahead of me! The girl's birthday is this Friday and we are having an auburn birthday party on Saturday. It's just a few neighbors and family and yet we have about 35 adults coming and 8 kids! I guess I'm glad I decided not to invite all my friends for this. I would have had to rent a place! I'm trying to figure out how I will logistically fit everyone in where they have a place to eat, but at least we have two big screens to watch the game. I'm sure the girls will enjoy the chaos and shaking their shakers! I'm making a tiger cake. I had to make a practice one and it turned out ok. We will see! Lots to do though! I can't believe my little girls will be a year old!

Nothing really new on the walking front- Hannah still takes 4-6 steps before lunging/falling forward and Leah stands great but no steps. I'm sure it will be any time now!

Oh yeah! I finally finished the last princess painting I started for the girls when I was prego. I painted a huge one for their nursery of Cinderella, snow white and sleeping beauty with the castle behind them. Since then I have been painting a bit here and there on the 6 smaller ones of all the princesses individually. These are for the playroom. I was determined to have them done before their first birthday and I knocked out the last 3 in the past 3 nights :). Those were the smallest. I'm so happy to be done! I'm taking a break from painting princesses for a while. I'll take a pic when we get them hung.

Gotta be at work really early so I can leave and make hannahs doctors appt. Goodnight!

The latest developments/achievements

Hannah cut her third tooth the other day, the top front, and today she cut her fourth. The one right next to it. So now she has 4 teeth and Leah still has none. But Leah's two bottom teeth are so close. I think they will be popping through any day now.

Both girls are standing quite a lot on their own now. Hannah is now taking 6 steps by herself before she topples over head first. She is very proud of herself. She just has to get a little more confident.

Apparently Leah has taken two steps as she was trying to get to Grammy but I have not seen her yet. She would do anything for Grammy though. She likes her better than me :)

Leah will clap the minute she hears the song "If you're happy and you know it". Hannah will stomp her feet but has no interest in the clapping part.

I am working on the girls waving their arms for the "Waaaaaarrrrr Eagle" cheer. Leah will do it sometimes. Hannah just looks at me like I am crazy. Ill keep trying :)

They are such a joy right now. This is an awesome age. They are so interactive and playful and soak everything in like little sponges. I want to spend every minute with them because they are a constant entertainment. Today when I got home from the store, Laura had them in the playroom and when they saw me out the window they both had their faces pressed up against the glass with a huge distorted smile. Leah started waving at me. It was priceless.

I must go to bed now! Early work day tomorrow.

A little poopie story

I know, gotta love the title, but "little" is actually an understatement. And I have to first apologize to my little Leah for any embarrassment this story may cause her in the future :)

On Sunday Matt went to work on a project, so it was just me and the kiddos until bedtime. We had a blast playing as usual and then after dinner it was time for baths. Leah had a dirty diaper before her bath, so I just cleaned her up and put her in the tub with her sister. A few moments into their playtime I noticed Leah had two little turds floating in the water. great. So I scooped them out and drained the tub and proceeded to wash them with the running water as I let it refill.

So I decided this night to get one of them out of the tub and completely dress her in the bathroom while the other played in the water. For some reason they have gotten where they HATE being dressed after a bath and tend to squirm and crawl away while screaming. No idea why. So instead of fighting with one naked baby while the other naked baby crawled into the kitchen or somewhere, I got Hannah out of the tub and put her diaper and clothes on while Leah stayed in the tub. I looked at Leah as I was finishing up Hannah and noticed she was really interested in something. (I thought it was a bath toy). NOPE. She had about 5 more turds floating around her and she was playing with one. Yep, squishing it. So gross. (And I must say that neither girl has ever pooped in the tub... ever.).

So I quickly got her out while Hannah was trying to reach in to the now draining tub to play with what her sister had obviously liked so much. I laid Leah on her towel on the bathroom mat and ran to the nursery to get her a diaper.

In that amount of time she had pooped a rather large amount onto the towel, and as I approached her with the diaper she knew it was time to be dressed which prompted Leah to go into squirmy mode as she tried to crawl away. At this point I am trying to use the towel, wipes, whatever to clean her up enough where I could lay her down somewhere and put the darn diaper on. Hannah is now involved and trying to climb on me, or Leah, or the areas she need not be. I had to move Hannah to the playroom so she would not get into the mess (the playroom is 2 feet from the bathroom), and in that time Leah followed. Now she has poop all over her and is leaving a trail. I had to act fast. I closed the bathroom door and headed to my bathroom for a tub which was not contaminated.

Upon entering my bathroom I remembered that we had cut Matts hair the night before (in the tub) and had yet to vacuum it out. After a brief moment of panic I stuck Leah in my shower (Hannah is now following us and trying to also get in the shower, clothes and all). She did very well sitting under the running water and I got her cleaned up.

Finally both girls were diapered with pajamas on. I took them to the playroom and put the baby gate up where I could hear them as I cleaned the bathroom/hall. When I got done I went back in the playroom where both girls were standing by their toy bins that were now all completely emptied, and books scattered everywhere. They were so happy. Im glad that they are utterly oblivious to their antics.

What a night...

A few videos

As I have mentioned before, it takes an act of Congress to get videos off our camera and uploaded to something that we can eventually post on here. So, here are a few and hopefully more will be added later. Matt has been working very hard to get these where we can actually view them :)

This one is of the girls swimming during our trip to PC. They are a lot better at it now. They were almost 9 months old here.

Hannah Swimming from matthewmccay on Vimeo.


This one is from the other night. We were getting Leah to do some of her "tricks"

Leah Doing the Motor Boat and Bye Bye from matthewmccay on Vimeo.


And this one is of Leah using her push walker. She just discovered it the other night and decided to use it.


Leah walking with the walker. from matthewmccay on Vimeo.

Here's Hannah and the walker

Hannah Walking with the Walker from matthewmccay on Vimeo.

More to come!

A day in the life of Mommy

Today was one of those days where I feel like I never got a moment to myself. I know it happens a lot as a mom, but today was crazy.

It started off with the new Wednesday morning routine. On Wednesdays the girls go to Mother's Day Out. But Hannah had to get her 3rd Rocephin shot this morning. So I lugged both girls into MDO and dropped off Leah. Hannah and I then went to the pediatrician to get her shot. While we waited the 30 minutes to see if she had a reaction, Dr. Bo checked her ears again, and it was still just as bad. I mentioned that Leah has had a cold for over a week and he said he wanted to see her to make sure her ears were ok.

So, because my schedule is going to be bad for the rest of the week I went ahead and made her an appointment within the hour. So I took Hannah back to MDO and picked up Leah and back to the pediatricians I went. While I was at the doctors with Leah I made had an appointment at the ENT for Hannah at 2:30. I knew she needed to get in fast so we would have a plan of action. Leah checked out just fine, except for her congestion which we got an antibiotic for. I took her back to MDO for another hour so they could go ahead and eat their lunch there.

So I went and got Leah's prescription filled while they were at MDO and grabbed Chick-fil-a and went back to get my girls. They were both exhausted. I had disrupted them enough today that Leah never really took a nap and Hannah's was short. So because I had some time before the ENT, I drove around a little so they could nap.

We arrived at the ENT (Laura met me here in case I got called in to work) and the girls were very rambunctious. They tried to destroy the waiting room, taking down every magazine they could find or other papers. But they refused to be held. They wanted down!

Finally the doctor saw us and looked in Hannah's ear. Because of my family history he is definitely worried but here is our latest update: She will be on a ten day dose of Augmentin (spelling?). Her eardrum will either rupture at which point she will feel better. It will heal itself and the meds will help with that. If it ruptures and another infection reoccurs, he will put tubes in. If in 10 days she is not better, he will put tubes in. He doesnt want to go directly to that because it is only in one ear and this is her first infection, but because of my past, if anything else happens he will schedule her for surgery. So my hope is that the antibiotic will actually work!!!

Anyway, by 4:30 I pulled into the driveway and Laura and I got the girls down for a nap, which they seriously needed. Of course while they napped I had to take care of the things that had not been done all day that I had been gone. Once they woke up it was their dinner time, then baths.

We enjoyed some playtime this evening when Daddy got home before they went to bed and now I finally have a moment to relax. Hopefully we are done with the doctors until the 29th when I take Hannah to check her ear again.

Whew what a day of juggling but at least I was productive!

Update on Hannah's ear

Last night Hannah woke up screaming again at 1:30. I honestly couldnt figure it out. She had been on two different kinds of antibiotics, the ear infection should be gone, right?

Today we had her 10 day checkup. He looked in and couldnt even see anything. Apparently she has been pushing things in her ear as she messes with it because it hurts, and he thought there was a buildup of wax/food in there. gross. So the nurse came in and irrigated her ear. He returned and still could not see anything, so he cleaned it out a little. After really looking though, he realized that her ear is just so infected that he could no longer see any landmarks that he was looking for. There was too much infection behind the ear drum. Poor baby!!!

So we have now begun a three day series of Recephin shots. If that doesnt work, we will have to go to an ENT, and the possibility of tubes is there. It seems crazy since she has only had one ear infection, but this is proving to be resistant to antibiotics and with my history I am hoping it will not rupture. (I have ruptured my ear drums 5 times).

I hope these shots will help, but according to the doctor, it is about as bad as he has ever seen. Honestly, Hannah has been an angel considering what she is going through. I remember that pain, and it is the worst!

What a week!

Ok, this has been quite a week. Since Hannah's ear infection was confirmed we have all been sick with a nice variety of ailments. Hannah seemed fine Thurs and Fri so Matt and I left the girls with Aunt Katy and Uncle Jason and their two young boys on Saturday and we went to the Auburn game. We did not go to Auburn last year at all because I was so pregnant, and then we had 2 newborns. Football season was spent either miserably huge or holding a baby. Ah memories...

Anyway, unknown to all of us, the boys had a pretty bad stomach virus (which really revealed itself a little later). It includes horrible diarrhea which made them have AWFUL diaper rash. Poor kiddos.

Saturday night Hannah woke up, which I assumed was because of her ear. Sunday night was the same way. But Hannah acted like she could not get comfortable. She would not lay on my stomach while we rocked. She finally calmed down laying beside me in bed until she fell asleep. Well, Monday morning I awoke to her screaming and she had apparently thrown up all in her crib. (sorry for all these lovely visuals). I thought maybe this could be her antibiotic, which I withheld until after she tolerated her lunch. But then the diarrhea started. For both girls. I still do not think they had it as bad as their cousins, but we have had a lot of outfit changes and sheet washes.

So Hannah has an ear infection, which eventually turned into a double ear infection (and we have changed to a stronger antibiotic now). Both got the stomach virus and Leah also has a pretty nasty cold, or is cutting a tooth. Either way they have been miserable. On top of all that, Matt was hit with the stomach virus late Monday night through thursday, and was extremely sick, and I had a sinus infection that settled into my chest (and I have asthma).

All week at least one child woke up every 2 hours or so (sometimes within 30 minutes of me putting one down, the other would wake up screaming). And I am in this catch 22 of, what if they have a dirty diaper? Their diaper rash is bad already because of the virus. Or what if Hannah's ear really hurts and her motrin has worn off? It has been constant. Last night they did much better. Hannah woke up at 4 and Leah woke up at 4:30, but I changed them, gave them some tylenol and a bottle and they went right back down. When we get the all clear at the doctors we will have to do the crying it out thing again, but for now I am trying to just comfort them.

But, we survived and there could always be worse things! It is funny though because the girls have never been sick before (aside from some congestion during flu season last year) and now they get everything at once!

The things they learn

Every day the girls amaze me at what they learn. Here are some of the latest developments that I have to note - and maybe this list will help remind me of what needs to be videotaped.

Leah throws the ball any time we give it to her. Upon learning this however, she now likes to throw everything. She definitely knows what a ball is though because if I tell her to go get the ball, she crawls right toward it. Most of the time she will say "Baw" when I say ball, but again I am not sure if she knows what she is saying.

If Hannah has a toy, she knows how to "share" (only with me though, NOT her sister). If I see her with something, and hold out my hand and ask, "May I have it?" she very gingerly puts in into my hand. Then laughs hysterically when I give it back to her. Sometimes if I just hold out my hand she immediately gives me what she has. That could be useful...

Leah waves now when she hears the word "bye bye" unless she is around strangers. Then she makes a total liar out of me. Funny thing is, we had actually been using the word "hi" and waving at her. Bye bye was second (I do not know why we went in this order other than we dont normally go away from them so maybe Hi was more common). she had been waving when she saw us wave, but now if she just hears bye bye she starts waving. I was on the phone with Matt telling him of this accomplishment, and Leah who was across the room heard this exciting word and started waving.

Hannah likes to kiss me right smack on the lips and holds the kiss for quite a while. And it is a little more open mouthed than I would like. I cannot help but laugh! Leah will do it sometimes but she just kinda presses her mouth against my face very quickly.

The word "no" is really really funny to Leah now. I do not know why because most times we have to say it, it is rather sternly. But Leah automatically cracks up when she hears it!!! What do we do about that?

Leah also immitates a monkey. I call them both little monkeys and one day to get her attention I made a monkey sound, which Leah found hilarious. So I repeated (of course). Now she makes her version of a monkey sound. Haha.

Some things they do are their attempts of copying us, and I cannot explain them, so I hope to get all this on video sometime soon. Just wanted to note these things though for now!

First ear infection

Hannah is a little trooper. She has been pulling on her ears since she was 3 months old, which has caused 4 trips to the doctor to check for a possible ear infection. Every single time she was clear and the doc did not know why she pulled on her ears so much. At our 9 month appointment he finally witnessed her doing this, and came to the conclusion that she just has a little nervous twitch. (he did a tympanogram to make sure there were no problems and she was fine). But at least he saw what I was talking about. Today I took her back to the doctor to once again check her ears, and this time I am not the paranoid over protective Momma who is scared of her children inheriting her ear problems. Full blown ear infection in her right ear. No fun!

The thing is, I was almost sure he would say she was fine, and probably teething. She has been eating and sleeping fine and really had not been too fussy lately. But this time she had been sticking her finger in her ear, so I felt the need to check it out. Good thing.

I feel bad though because I am not sure how long she has been doing this, though I do know it got worse recently. But we took the girls swimming on Labor day which probably did not help.

As for her being a trooper though (and really I cannot leave Leah out because she was one today as well), it really comes down to our very busy day today.

As I mentioned before I took the girls to Gymboree today. They both got up earlier than usual this morning at around 7:30 so normally 10:30 they are ready for their naps. The class started at 10:15. Hannah had one little moment, but Leah was wonderful the entire time. They were exhausted when we got in the car. Laura and I decided to go to lunch, and it was coming up on lunchtime for the girls. We wanted Mexican, but they cant eat anything there so we drove home to grab a lunch for them. They fell asleep hard core in the car, so Laura ran in and packed lunch while I drove in circles. Anyone else do this? Then we called my mom and decided to meet her at the Mexican restaurant by her house, so the kiddos would have more time to sleep.

They did great at the restaurant, so we then ran by my dads office to pick up some Auburn tickets for this weekend. They played a little while there. Then it was coming up on the time for Hannahs appointment so we went straight there. Hannah fell asleep again in the car. There was a train across the street from the pediatrician and it was quite loud but it did not phase Hannah. In fact she slept in my arms until I had to put her down to get weighed.

(on a side note, she weighs 23lbs, 13oz. Yes, I know. Big baby. I get it) :)

Both girls were angels at the doctors office and when we FINALLY got home at 4 they went down for a nice hour and a half nap. Poor things were almost falling asleep while I changed their diapers.

So all in all, I am glad Hannah has been relatively asymptomatic even with a horrible ear infection. And I am glad I did not just think it was her nervous twitch again.

Mother's Day Out and Gymboree

The girls started a Mother's Day Out program this week. Matt and I decided to do this so the girls can get used to the daycare setting and Laura would have a little time to run errands during the week. (This was incentive for her to stay here too). So on Tuesday we met their teachers and saw their room. I am very happy with them. They are only going on Wednesdays because my sister babysits my next door neighbors little girl on tuesday and thursday.

I have to admit I was a little nervous but they apparently did very well. There are only 4 kids in the class total, so I am sure they just played hard all day. Hannah took an hour nap there and Leah tried, but ended up talking the entire time. :)

Today I took them to a Gymboree class, which was great! go to www.gymboreeclasses.com. Basically Gymboree is a fun class that has multiple levels based on age group and interest. They focus on what they should be working on at that age (gross and fine motor skills, etc) and do fun activities to enhance them. Also the whole place is filled with ramps and tunnels and balls and toys that are perfect for little explorers. They are in a level 3 class (10-16 months) and there was only one other little girl there today with her dad. The teacher was very good at getting their attention and most importantly KEEPING their attention. Leah was enthralled from the moment the teacher started singing the "hello song". (They have songs for everything). It was a very exciting hour. I would really like to join them there. Basically for both girls it would be $100 a month, which is cheaper than an extra day in MDO, but the only class I can attend with them would most likely be on Thursdays. I have to have my sister with my to do this class (or any other helper) since it has to be one adult to one kid. And she has our neighbor on Thursdays. They have a 3 year old class at the exact same time, so I may talk to my neighbor and see if she would be interested in her daughter doing this.

On top of the weekly class, which is easily made up if we had to miss (aka I had to work), they have a few slots of just "playtime" where I could take them by myself and they could explore the equipment. Grandparents, friends, etc can come during these times too. So I think it would be really fun. I am going to take them there tomorrow night to try this out before I make a decision on joining.

Basically they are getting to an age where staying at home is not going to be as fun as it once was. They are into everything and we need a little excitement during the day!

If you are in the Birmingham area or there is a Gymboree near you, I would say check it out for your infant/toddler/preschooler. They offer free classes so you can see what it is all about!